Nobody Wants to Read Long Business Reports
and Wordy Content Anymore

A guide to using infographics and data visualization in helping businesses spread the word, grow customer base, and improve internal communications.

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The power of visuals in business

The power of visuals in business image

Quick fact: Stories sell because it appeals to innate human drives.

The human brain is a pattern-seeking machine — from sounds to smell to visuals. We seek patterns around us to find meaning and make sense of the world.

In business, you may not be aware of it but you’re telling a story whenever you’re creating a report or composing a slide deck explaining a process.

Most of all, you are sharing your brand story to prospects and customers every time you’re creating content that will educate and inspire them to take action.

But telling stories may not be enough.

How you tell your story can also make a difference — your medium matters too.

Why Rely on Visuals for Effective Business Communication

When you use text alone in your business communications and content, odds are the full impact of your information will not be absorbed.

Visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text.

90% of information is processed visually.

65 percent of people are visual learners.

People remember 80% of what they see - only 20 percent of what they read.

What if you’ve been sharing information via text and written communications but the message isn’t getting across?

This is actually a common problem in organizations, especially when:

Training new employees with complex written manuals.

Creating quarterly or annual reports for executives or investors.

Highlighting your company’s different products and services.

Discussing complex processes, strategies or ideas.

Trying to show how services or strategies benefit the end user/customer.

Outlining different options for business operations improvement.

The way we tell stories has fundamentally changed. The world has gone visual and your business needs to adapt.

When you use visuals to support both internal and external communications, you’ll benefit from improved employee productivity, streamlined processes and potentially higher sales or conversions. You also get to the point faster.

Written communication still serves a powerful role in any organization, but supplementing written information with visuals can help people:

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Retain information longer

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Engage with "boring" content

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Share information more easily

Visuals are highly persuasive and attract the eye. Using them to the fullest in your business communications can ensure that your message is always loud and clear.
LOUD AND CLEAR

What to expect from this guide?

Your customers don’t buy the way they used to. Your employees don’t communicate the way they used to. Your competitors are not even selling and marketing the way they used to.

In this short guide, you’ll learn about the new way of communicating your brand story.

Scroll down for examples of transforming boring, text-based content into an infographic that will turn heads and boost engagement!

Create annual reports that people will actually read.

Are you getting bored just thinking of reading your company’s latest annual report? Is it your job to collect and create the report? These documents are notoriously boring but they are critical to the success of your business.

Employees, executives and shareholders benefit from reviewing annual reports, so you need to keep creating it.

But what if you could make your annual reports better?

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Turn boring, text-based timelines into an interesting, digestible timeline infographic.

Timeline infographics are a better way to plan your quarterly goals, product launch dates, and company deadlines. Not only are infographic timelines fun to look at. It’s also easier to clearly state goals, highlight launch dates, and specify who is in charge of each component.

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Pitch seemingly dull social responsibility ideas into a captivating, easy-to-understand visual.

Did you know that 87% of consumers say they will purchase products from companies that advocate for an issue they care about?

Unfortunately, many companies write up longform descriptions of their corporate philanthropy efforts or social responsibility policies - without thought about how consumers would find this information.

Create cause infographics highlighting what your organization does differently. You can also use it to attract attention to your socially-responsible business and stand out from the rest.

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Tell people what your business is about by transforming text-heavy product description and About pages into an entertaining visual.

Your business likely has pages and packets of information about its various services, products and/or programs. Whether you use these materials for internal or external use (or even for your website), they are likely written text that rarely gets read.

When you want to highlight what your business offers quickly and effectively, an infographic can be a huge help. Not only will it be more visually appealing and branded to your organization, but it will help the intended audience retain information better.

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Explain complex processes into a visual that informs and delights at the same time.

When onboarding new employees, getting started with a new client or meeting with new investors, you need a way to share important processes, steps and workflows. Your business likely writes these processes down and shares with people as needed.

But do you find yourself wondering, “Why is no one following the directions?” or “Why do people keep asking me about how this works?” It’s because documents are boring and hard to remember. But you can make it easier with a process infographic.

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Help your customers and clients make an informed choice by making it easier for them to compare and contrast options.

Internal decision-making often comes from comparing 2 or more options. Consumers choose to purchase your products or services after comparing options. Investors must review multiple options before deciding which program to invest in. Comparison is a vital part of commerce.

When comparisons are all text, however, you’re trusting that the person reading the information is reading everything and retaining the most important parts. With comparison infographics, you can attract the eye and make it clear why one strategy, product, service or company is better than another.

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Encourage readers to learn workflows faster by simplifying long-winded explanations and checklists.

Outlining strategy and hierarchy within your organization is critical if you want to grow. Getting customers to convert is complicated. Sometimes, your sales team needs a clear chart to help close deals. Instead of writing out long explanations or creating generic maps, flowchart infographics can help.

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Implement scorecards by presenting them in a way that engages and persuades readers at the same time.

Organizations typically fail at implementing scorecards because no one’s paying attention to it. For most people, it’s boring and doesn’t make sense. Presenting scorecards as an infographic elicits a more productive reaction from your audience which in turns increases the likelihood of gaining their support.

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Break down long, investigative reports into essential data points.

Business reports describing extensive investigation of unsatisfactory conditions or problems can be tedious and uninteresting for many. Focus attention where you want it by making your findings more visually appealing. Highlight what’s important by adding a creative twist to it.

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Communicating employee feedback is complicated. Simplify the process with a performance review infographic.

A successful employee performance review does more than communicate what’s wrong and what needs to be done. More importantly, it should set up employees for success, and they should be able to walk away with a solid grasp and clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities.

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Present survey results and accentuate relevant findings into a cohesive, powerful piece of visual.

What if you have 3 minutes to tell your audience what they need to know?

Emphasize the important stuff and create a visual hierarchy of information by creating a statistical infographic. A good statistical infographic should be scannable and shareable at the same time.

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If you only have a limited amount of time to tell your audience what they need to know, how would you say it?

When they start using infographics instead of text documents alone, many of our users notice:

  • Improved employee training
  • Better internal communications
  • Streamlined planning
  • Reduced file sharing and emails
  • Increased sales, conversions & more

Power Your Next Business Project with Easelly Infographics

  • Infographics can help your team retain more information, strategize faster and plan in a more organized manner.
  • Cut out plain text documents that make your employees fall asleep and stop sharing annual reports, strategy plans or processes that nobody reads!
  • All it takes is a great template (Easel.ly has thousands!!) and a little creativity to make business infographics that can help your business thrive.

Easelly is free to use for businesses of any size. You can also get Easelly Pro with instant access to free editable infographic templates. New templates are added weekly!